Creation in media is always a collaborative project that can all too often see one person gain all the acclaim. This is as true in Star Trek as any other production and in an era of romanticising the past as well as the originator of the Star Trek Universe, Gene Roddenberry couldn’t do it alone
Having already sold some scripts as a working writer, Dorothy Fontana’s link to Star Trek began in 1963 when Gene Roddenberry’s secretary was hospitalised. Already working on Roddenberry’s show, The Lieutenant, Fontana’s talents became known and a professional relationship was born. Just a few short years later he’d ask his secretary which of the pitches she liked best for a new show he was developing, some little thing called Star Trek. She chose Charlie X. It was the first step on a path that would make her one of the most influential people in the early days of the franchise.
Although Roddenberry got the credit for the episode, the script was Fontana’s first Star Trek story and an indication of the talent she brought to the table with her reliance on human themes that transcended the genre she was writing for.
Despite the impression thats left these days, women in writing jobs wasn’t as uncommon as it’s remembered. But not a lot were working in action or science fiction. Breaking away from the cliché’s of the time, Fontana wrote several scripts for Star Trek under a pen name – DC Fontana – to avoid the inevitable critique of the type of stories she was writing.
Years later Deep Space Nine would make a prominent nod to the discrimination Fontana had avoided. When Ben Sisko’s imaginary alter ego, 1950’s sci fi writer Benny Russell, was asked to take a day off for a group photo of magazine writers, his college Kaye ‘KC’ Hunter shared her rage at the magizines paranoia of finding out their star writer was a woman.
Starting off as a young aspiring writer focus son horror, Fontana’s contributions to star Trek were some of the finest. Being promoted to Story Editor,, she would write both original stories and final drafts of several popular episodes for the first two seasons while working as a freelancer for the third. Her influence tot he process and the brand that was developing was so strong that she was asked to return and help develop the Next Generation in the 80’s though her influence lives on today.
The episode Journey to Babel, which introduced Spock’s parents Sarek and Amanda, would resonate for decades with Sarek being brought back for the original series films, two episodes of the Next Generation and even reprised on Discovery. Leonard Nimoy would praise her for the contributions she made, not just to Star Trek, but to the Vulcan culture that was being developed on a show that no one realised would be seen for decades to come.
Dorothy Fontana spent her final years working for the American Film Institute Conservatory as a lecturer asking her students why they write and helping to develop new minds before passing away in 2019.
A trailblazer and pioneer for women in science fiction, Dorothy Fontana was a key part of what made Star Trek a success and an icon in her own right.
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